Apartment Help My SO and I have been living in this tiny apartment for 8 months. It's pretty…

Apartment Help

My SO and I have been living in this tiny apartment for 8 months. It's pretty horrible. Basically it is a basement of a house turned into a somewhat habitable place. Just to give you an idea, the floors are cement, there's no heat or air conditioning, limited windows, no cabinets in the "kitchen", bedroom just big enough for a bed and two dressers. Both of us agree that we can't live here much longer. The problem is this place is cheap, like dirt cheap. Any place we would be able to move into would be about $300-400 more a month. This is not a problem financially for me, I could pay the full rent just fine. My SO makes a bit less than I do and has a horrendous car payment so having to pay even $200 more a month would be difficult for him. But my SO is a very proud man, very proud and will not consider letting me pay more than him. Any suggestions on how to lessen the blow to his ego or how to even approach this situation?